(W4) Social Networks and Virtual Worlds

Tuesday 18th November 08 ... 2pm to 5.30pm
In the last few years Social (online) Networks have grown enormously in popularity with students around the world ... but these have not yet been adopted or used by many schools. In fact quite a number of schools around the world have blocked access on the school network to some of the social network websites like, 'myspace' and 'facebook'.
In this session we will look at what a social network site is and see some examples and discuss the pros and cons for a school community. We will also look at some ways of setting up your own social network for use with your class, school, or club .... or even outside work for your own family.
Finally in this session we will look at Second Life, a 3D virtual environment that is a potentially valuable tool to support teaching and learning, more than half of UK Universities have a presence in S.L.
I will also be introducing you to my own island in Second Life designed to support the professional development of k-12 teachers ... http://internationalschoolsisland.info
If you time before the session then have a look at the pages http://www.shambles.net/pages/learning/infolit/socialnet and http://www.shambles.net/secondlife

Your Homework ... one job before you arrive .... introduce yourself (e.g. name, where you are working now, what age students do you work with, do you already use the internet, any technology/computer experiences)

and also say what you hope to achieve at the workshop.

Just click on the word "Comments" below

and fill in the form that should come up.

You can post anonymously although it would be nice to know who you are.